Was it a spy, or would-be spy, in that SUV?Despite CIA mementos and other evidence, Roland Carnaby's life remains an enigma

Rob Kouts shows some of the photos, plaques and certificates his brother-in-law displayed.

Rob Kouts shows some of the photos, plaques and certificates his brother-in-law displayed.

Photo: JOHNNY HANSON, CHRONICLE

Photo: JOHNNY HANSON, CHRONICLE

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Rob Kouts shows some of the photos, plaques and certificates his brother-in-law displayed.

Rob Kouts shows some of the photos, plaques and certificates his brother-in-law displayed.

Photo: JOHNNY HANSON, CHRONICLE

Man killed by HPD still an enigma despite CIA mementos

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Much about Roland Carnaby's life speaks to a long career as a devoted intelligence officer — from his effort to build a local chapter of the professional association to his personal friendships with current and former members of the intelligence community to his respect and affection for law enforcement and its dignitaries.

His home in Pearland is filled with pieces of his patriotic past. Plaques honor his years of service to the Central Intelligence Agency. A book written by former CIA Director George Tenet is inscribed with a warm and playful message. Photos of him at CIA headquarters, in front of military aircraft and with various dignitaries are prominently displayed.

A small room off the front foyer was Carnaby's study. There's an American flag on the wall and a "CIA" coffee mug on the desk.

Now, in the wake of his strange death Tuesday at the conclusion of a high-speed police chase, doubts have been raised about his oft-projected persona as a CIA operative by the agency itself. It bluntly disavowed employing him. Might the denial be little more than standard operating procedure, as his wife suggests? Or could it be that he spent years constructing an elaborate fraud, with a home filled more with artifice than artifacts?

When his wife, Susan, was asked if she now thinks it possible her husband could have been lying to her for more than a decade, she hesitated.

"How would you know?" she replied quietly. "How would you know if what anybody told you was true?"

As family and friends gathered to mourn his loss, her wavering confidence loomed large. A day after police shot him as he made an ill-advised move upon exiting his SUV, the Carnaby that so many thought they knew had become a shadowy figure, one who apparently concealed from his wife his true whereabouts and from his friends many of the pertinent details of his private life. Even some who stand by him admit they never got to know him really well.

"He never really wanted to talk about his personal life," said one friend who asked not to be named. "Obviously there are some missing pieces."

This friend, and others, remain loyal, both to the warm and engaging man they knew and to the intelligence agent he claimed to be. They insist his bona fides were too solid and his recognition by former intelligence personnel too genuine for him to be a fake. A caller identifying himself only as "Chuck" and responding to an inquiry sent to chapters of the Association for Intelligence Officers insisted Carnaby worked with the CIA in the 1980s in its Soviet Union unit.

The CIA disputes this, which if true means that the agency identification he carried with him at the time of his death and which he occasionally flashed to friends and law enforcement officers would have been bogus.

"While we do not as a rule publicly deny or confirm employment, I will tell you in this case that Mr. Carnaby was not an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said. "He was never a CIA officer."

Wife doubts CIA denial

Of course, the denial doesn't prove that the agency never used him as a contractor. Carnaby was fluent in many languages, family and friends say, including Arabic and French, and could have been useful in the Mideast, especially in the waning days of the Cold War.

Susan Carnaby does not put much stock in the CIA denial.

"No, because why would they even admit it?" she said. "How many cases could that blow? I think that's not their policy to make comments on that type of thing. Roland always told me that if anything ever happened to him don't expect anyone to stand up and say that's what he did for a living. They keep these things undercover for a reason."

A former wife, however, is less convinced. Sha'rie Burch, who lives in Willis, said much about her ex-husband struck her as odd when they were married. He told her he worked with the CIA and even had a small badge, but never explained what he did. If she asked for more details, she said, he'd get defensive and not answer.

"He had very big, tall stories that were hard to believe," Burch said. "It was kind of a suspicious thing."

Port Authority connection

On the other hand, he was friends with local federal agents and they often came to the couple's Spring home for dinner, Burch said. The couple had private dinners with the head of the Houston Port Authority, she said, and Carnaby also was close friends with former Harris County Sheriff Johnny Klevenhagen, who she said was best man at their wedding in 1986. Klevenhagen died in 1999.

The Port Authority connection could make sense for a strictly commercial reason. Carnaby's family, which used the different spelling of Karnabe, was involved in the shipping industry, which was the apparent source of his considerable but undetermined income. He paid cash for his cars.

Burch said she first met him when she was about 19. Friends introduced them. He was 10 years older, drove a Ferrari and boasted about his family homes in New York and Geneva.

He was the son of a wealthy Lebanese family that owns a shipping business, she said. She said he told her that he was born and raised in New York City.

His father, Vincent Said Carnaby, was a Lebanese ambassador to several countries, she said, and son Roland worked for the family business and often traveled for business.

He and Burch divorced in 1993. Part of the reason, she said, was his hot temper.

By the time of their divorce, Carnaby already had another romance brewing. A petite woman with curly brown hair and glasses, Susan Carnaby teaches eighth grade in Northshore. The 55-year-old met her husband about 17 years ago when she worked as the manager of a men's store in the Galleria.

She described him as a gentleman, worldly and traveled.

"He's one of those people who's very unique, very vibrant, the life of the party, knows everybody," she said. "He likes to be around people. He's a people person."

He told her he was a CIA agent and she had no reason to doubt him, she said.

After dating for about five years, the couple married in Las Vegas on Nov. 10, 1997. "He planned the whole thing," she said.

Susan Carnaby said her husband often traveled overseas, leaving for months at a time. If he was in Washington, he would tell her, but most of the time she had no idea where he had gone, she said. It was top secret, he told her.

The last time she saw her husband was in March, she said.

The news that he was in town when he was supposedly traveling, and the mention of a supposed fiancee, stunned her when she learned it after his death. She said she and her husband were not separated.

"Not as far as I know," she said, adding that the couple just moved into their new house in Pearland last June. "All his things are here."

Police Wednesday were still trying to fit together the series of events that ended when Carnaby was shot by officers who surrounded his vehicle after a chase that ended near the Galleria.

During the chase, Carnaby called a friend on his cell phone. The friend, whom police have not identified, was supposed to have lunch with Carnaby that day.

"The guy was telling him, 'You need to pull over. You need to do what the officers are telling you,' " said Capt. Steve Jett, commander of HPD's homicide division. "His answer was, 'I can't.' "

Tapes back HPD's account

Police don't know why Carnaby felt unable to comply with the officers' demands. He appeared shaky and nervous when pulled over for speeding on Texas 288 near West Orem. He presented a card identifying himself as a CIA employee.

The card was laminated and bore the seal of the espionage agency.

Police said they are waiting for federal officials to determine if the document was legitimate or a fabrication.

Investigators said the three weapons discovered in his car appeared to be Carnaby's and were legally owned. One pistol was under the passenger-side floor mat while a second was between the seats. A pistol-grip shotgun was on the floor board of the back seat. Jett said a round was in the shotgun and the safety was off.

"All he would have to do was reach over the console and pick it up," Jett said.

The officers told investigators they feared for their safety when he reached back into the Jeep for what turned out to be a "shiny" personal assistant-cellular phone.

Jett said there is video and audio that backs up the officers' contention that Carnaby acted "erratically," before making a "very quick overt move" toward an officer.

He said the HPD would probably seek to prevent release of the audio and video until the investigation concludes.

"We have no idea why he ran. We are investigating that," he said. "He was very nervous. The officer said that he was shaking, and the officer didn't understand because most law enforcement would have been friendly."

A review of public records showed that Carnaby had a clean record save for two speeding tickets, including one last summer in Fairfax, Va.